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AN ACT TO DEFINE CONDOMINIUM, ESTABLISH REQUIREMENTS FOR ITS CREATION, AND GOVERN ITS INCIDENTS.
The short title of this Act shall be “The Condominium Act”.
. A condominium is an interest in real property consisting of separate interest in a unit in a residential, industrial or commercial building and an undivided interest in common, directly or indirectly, in the land on which it is located and in other common areas of the building. A condominium may include, in addition, a separate interest in other portions of such real property. Title to the common areas, including the land, or the appurtenant interests in such areas, may be held by a corporation specially formed for the purpose (hereinafter known as the “condominium corporation”) in which the holders of separate interest shall automatically be members or shareholders, to the exclusion of others, in proportion to the appurtenant interest of their respective units in the common areas.
The real right in condominium may be ownership or any other interest in real property recognized by law, on property in the Civil Code and other pertinent laws.
As used in this Act, unless the context otherwise requires:
(a) “Condominium” means a condominium as defined in the next preceding section.
(b) “Unit” means a part of the condominium project intended for any type of independent use or ownership, including one or more rooms or spaces located in one or more floors (or part or parts of floors) in a building or buildings and such accessories as may be appended thereto.
(c) “Project” means the entire parcel of real property divided or to be divided in condominiums, including all structures thereon,
(d) “Common areas” means the entire project excepting all units separately granted or held or reserved.
(e) “To divide” real property means to divide the ownership thereof or other interest therein by conveying one or more condominiums therein but less than the whole thereof.
The provisions of this Act shall apply to property divided or to be divided into condominiums only if there shall be recorded in the Register of Deeds of the province or city in which the property lies and duly annotated in the corresponding certificate of title of the land, if the latter had been patented or registered under either the Land Registration or Cadastral Acts, an enabling or master deed which shall contain, among others, the following:
(a) Description of the land on which the building or buildings and improvements are or are to be located;
(b) Description of the building or buildings, stating the number of stories and basements, the number of units and their accessories, if any;
(c) Description of the common areas and facilities;
(d) A statement of the exact nature of the interest acquired or to be acquired by the purchaser in the separate units and in the common areas of the condominium project. Where title to or the appurtenant interests in the common areas is or is to be held by a condominium corporation, a statement to this effect shall be included;
(e) Statement of the purposes for which the building or buildings and each of the units are intended or restricted as to use;
(f) A certificate of the registered owner of the property, if he is other than those executing the master deed, as well as of all registered holders of any lien or encumbrance on the property, that they consent to the registration of the deed
Any transfer or conveyance of a unit or an apartment, office or store or other space therein, shall include the transfer or conveyance of the undivided interests in the common areas or, in a proper case, the membership or shareholdings in the condominium corporation: Provided, however, That where the common areas in the condominium project are owned by the owners of separate units as co-owners thereof, no condominium unit therein shall be conveyed or transferred to persons other than Filipino citizens, or corporations at least sixty percent of the capital stock of which belong to Filipino citizens, except in cases of hereditary succession. Where the common areas in a condominium project are held by a corporation, no transfer or conveyance of a unit shall be valid if the concomitant transfer of the appurtenant membership or stockholding in the corporation will cause the alien interest in such corporation to exceed the limits imposed by existing laws.
Unless otherwise expressly provided in the enabling or master deed or the declaration of restrictions, the incidents of a condominium grant are as follows:
(a) The boundary of the unit granted are the interior surfaces of the perimeter walls, floors, ceilings, windows and doors thereof. The following are not part of the unit bearing walls, columns, floors, roofs, foundations and other common structural elements of the building; lobbies, stairways, hallways, and other areas of common use, elevator equipment and shafts, central heating, central refrigeration and central air-conditioning equipment, reservoirs, tanks, pumps and other central services and facilities, pipes, ducts, flues, chutes, conduits, wires and other utility installations, wherever located, except the outlets thereof when located within the unit.
(b) There shall pass with the unit, as an appurtenance thereof, an exclusive easement for the use of the air space encompassed by the boundaries of the unit as it exists at any particular time and as the unit may lawfully be altered or reconstructed from time to time. Such easement shall be automatically terminated in any air space upon destruction of the unit as to render it untenantable.
(c) Unless otherwise, provided, the common areas are held in common by the holders of units, in equal shares, one for each unit.
(d) A non-exclusive easement for ingress, egress and support through the common areas is appurtenant to each unit and the common areas are subject to such easements.
(e) Each condominium owner shall have the exclusive right to paint, repaint, tile, wax, paper or otherwise refinish and decorate the inner surfaces of the walls, ceilings, floors, windows and doors bounding his own unit.
(f) Each condominium owner shall have the exclusive right to mortgage, pledge or encumber his condominium and to have the same appraised independently of the other condominiums but any obligation incurred by such condominium owner is personal to him.
(g) Each condominium owner has also the absolute right to sell or dispose of his condominium unless the master deed contains a requirement that the property be first offered to the condominium owners within a reasonable period of time before the same is offered to outside parties;
Except as provided in the following section, the common areas shall remain undivided, and there shall be no judicial partition thereof.
Where several persons own condominiums in a condominium project, an action may be brought by one or more such persons for partition thereof by sale of the entire project, as if the owners of all of the condominiums in such project were co-owners of the entire project in the same proportion as their interests in the common areas: Provided, however, That a partition shall be made only upon a showing:
(a) That three years after damage or destruction to the project which renders material part thereof unit for its use prior thereto, the project has not been rebuilt or repaired substantially to its state prior to its damage or destruction, or
(b) That damage or destruction to the project has rendered one-half or more of the units therein untenantable and that condominium owners holding in aggregate more than thirty percent interest in the common areas are opposed to repair or restoration of the project; or
(c) That the project has been in existence in excess of fifty years, that it is obsolete and uneconomic, and that condominium owners holding in aggregate more than fifty percent interest in the common areas are opposed to repair or restoration or remodeling or modernizing of the project; or
(d) That the project or a material part thereof has been condemned or expropriated and that the project is no longer viable, or that the condominium owners holding in aggregate more than seventy percent interest in the common areas are opposed to continuation of the condominium regime after expropriation or condemnation of a material portion thereof; or
(e) That the conditions for such partition by sale set forth in the declaration of restrictions, duly registered in accordance with the terms of this Act, have been met.
he owner of a project shall, prior to the conveyance of any condominium therein, register a declaration of restrictions relating to such project, which restrictions shall constitute a lien upon each condominium in the project, and shall insure to and bind all condominium owners in the project. Such liens, unless otherwise provided, may be enforced by any condominium owner in the project or by the management body of such project. The Register of Deeds shall enter and annotate the declaration of restrictions upon the certificate of title covering the land included within the project, if the land is patented or registered under the Land Registration or Cadastral Acts.
The declaration of restrictions shall provide for the management of the project by anyone of the following management bodies: a condominium corporation, an association of the condominium owners, a board of gove
rnors elected by condominium owners, or a management agent elected by the owners or by the board named in the declaration. It shall also provide for voting majorities quorums, notices, meeting date, and other rules governinWhenever the common areas in a condominium project are held by a condominium corporation, such corporation shall constitute the management body of the project. The corporate purposes of such a corporation shall be limited to the holding of the common areas, either in ownership or any other interest in real property recognized by law, to the management of the project, and to such other purposes as may be necessary, incidental or convenient to the accomplishment of said purposes. The articles of incorporation or by-laws of the corporation shall not contain any provision contrary to or inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, the enabling or master deed, or the declaration of restrictions of the project. Membership in a condominium corporation, regardless of whether it is a stock or non-stock corporation, shall not be transferable separately from the condominium unit of which it is an appurtenance. When a member or stockholder ceases to own a unit in the project in which the condominium corporation owns or holds the common areas, he shall automatically cease to be a member or stockholder of the condominium corporation.g such body or bodies.
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